The material itself costs almost the same
A cathode is the electrode inside a battery cell that stores lithium while the battery charges. Lithium iron phosphate, called LFP, is the cheapest common cathode chemistry and the one most affordable electric vehicles use today. Argonne National Laboratory, a United States government research centre, built a cost model called BatPaC that priced 5 cathode chemistries the same way, on the same date. It priced the raw material for LFP at 8.70 dollars a kilogram. A version doped with manganese, 80% manganese and 20% iron on the metal site, called LMFP80, priced at 9.00 dollars a kilogram, about 3% more.
All 4 figures are from the same cost model, same table, same date.
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| LFP | 8.70 |
| LMFP80 | 9.00 |
| NMC622 | 22.30 |
| NMC811 | 24.40 |
Manganese pushes the voltage up
Manganese is added because it pushes up voltage, the electrical pressure a battery cell delivers. Argonne measured the 2 chemical reactions that release the stored charge inside 1 manganese doped cell, separately. The manganese reaction runs at about 4.1 volts, the iron reaction at about 3.4 volts. Because the manganese reaction sits at a higher voltage, adding more of it raises the average voltage of the whole cell.
Measured directly in 1 Argonne laboratory cell called LMFP64, on charge and discharge, paired with a lithium titanate anode rather than the graphite anode a production electric vehicle pack uses.
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| Iron on charge | 3.51 |
| Iron on discharge | 3.47 |
| Manganese on charge | 4.10 |
| Manganese on discharge | 4.02 |
What that means for a real battery pack
The BatPaC model also built a full pack around each chemistry, sized to a 300 mile range and paired with a graphite anode, the other electrode inside the cell, the same design a real electric vehicle uses. At 50% charge, plain LFP reached 3.32 volts and LMFP80 reached 3.89 volts, about 17% higher. NMC622 and NMC811, the 2 common formulas of nickel manganese cobalt, the family called NMC that most electric vehicles use today, both reached 3.71 volts in the same model, below LMFP80. A higher voltage lets a cell store more energy for the same weight, which is why manufacturers frame this blend around driving range rather than cost alone.
All 4 figures are from the same cost model, paired with a graphite anode and sized to a 300 mile range pack.
Show the numbers
| LFP | 3.32 |
| NMC622 | 3.71 |
| NMC811 | 3.71 |
| LMFP80 | 3.89 |
Companies started building it in 2022 and 2023
Gotion, a battery manufacturer, built a manganese doped cell it calls L600 Astroinno, stating 240 watt hours per kilogram of energy density and a cycle life of 4,000 charges at room temperature. Dr Cheng Qian, executive president for international business at Gotion, said, "It is due to the high energy density of Astroinno battery that we can enable a range of 1000 km without relying on NCM materials." Gotion targeted 2024 for L600 production. In 2022, CATL, another battery maker, planned to mass produce a manganese doped cell within the year, and Sunwoda and Eve Energy were sending samples to automakers.
Making it well is still a harder job
The cost model itself assumes that manufacturing problems seen in academic research have already been solved through industrial engineering, an assumption Argonne states openly rather than a measured fact. A separate 2024 paper, co authored by a scientist at Argonne, found the manganese ion distorts the internal structure of the material and lowers electrical conductivity, how easily electricity moves through it, which is why the manganese blend needs smaller particles and a carbon coating that plain LFP does not need. A newly engineered particle design in that paper kept 97.1% of its storage capacity after 300 cycles of charging and discharging, against 68.1% for a conventionally made version of the same material.